When Hezb'Allah declared war on Israel in the Summer of 2006 and Israel kicked their sorry jihad asses, the UN brokered a ceasefire -- resolution 1701. John Bolton in January 2007 said here:

I think that the enhanced UNIFIL which was agreed to with a lot of fanfare as part of resolution 1701 has not been successful in fully accomplishing the mission that we wanted to give to it. There's no doubt Syria and Iran have very substantially resupplied and rearmed Hezb'Allah. The UNIFIL people have done essentially nothing about it. Those shipments across the Lebanese Syrian border have been reported by the UN itself not something that comes just from the United States.

It could be we are coming to a day of reckoning here on resolution 1701 and whether the cessation of hostilities that was established between Hezb'Allah and Israel is going to remain acceptable.

I would hope the United States in the near future begins to take the next step that we made a conscious decision not to make in 1701 and that is disarming Hezb'Allah.

The unspoken premise of 1701 was first you stop them from getting external assistance by imposing an arms embargo but then the next step is to disarm Hezb'allah and we have not done anything on that. We are at the point , we have got to move to that second step.

Ya think?

Look at this map. These "people" live solely to annihilate the Jewish people. Look at it. Without their all consuming Jew hatred, what on earth would they do with their worthless lives?

And the world yawns at Hizballah's country-within-a-country, complete with "the strongest armed force in Lebanon." "Israel releases army map showing nearly 1,000 purported Hezbollah underground military sites," from the Washington Post, March 31 (thanks to all who sent this in):

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military on Thursday released a map detailing what it says are nearly 1,000 underground bunkers, weapons storage facilities and monitoring sites built by the militant Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

Many of the sites on the map are located south of the Litani River in Lebanon, the zone where Hezbollah is banned from keeping weapons under the U.N.-sponsored truce that ended Israel’s summer 2006 war with the guerrilla group.

An article on the military spokesman’s website says Hezbollah has set up some 550 bunkers, 300 monitoring sites and 100 weapons storage facilities. The facilities are located in 270 villages, and many are located near hospitals, private homes and schools, the military said in a statement published on its website.

Where's the outrage? Not in Washington, apparently, where the Obama administration is considering reaching out to "nonmilitary components" in Hizballah and Hamas that they suppose "can be drawn into a dialogue."

Israel and Hezbollah went to war after the Lebanese guerrilla group killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others in a cross-border raid. Although Israel inflicted heavy damage on the group, it was unable to prevent it from firing some 4,000 rockets into Israel during the monthlong conflict.

Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of repeatedly violating the U.N.-brokered cease-fire by restocking its arsenal and covertly moving forces into south Lebanon, near the Israeli border. The map released Thursday was meant to provide new evidence against Hezbollah.

Israel believes Hezbollah now has more than 40,000 rockets, nearly three time the pre-war level, including more powerful weapons capable of reaching Israel’s Tel Aviv heartland.

Remember also that in 2004, U.N. Resolution 1559 demanded the disarmament of all Lebanese militia groups. Hizballah is the only group from Lebanon's civil war that failed to do so. They have had seven years not only to ignore this resolution (just like almost everyone else has where Hizballah is concerned), but to build an even larger army in defiance of it.

The militant group, which controls the strongest armed force in Lebanon, did not acknowledge or deny that the Israeli map was accurate and accused Israel of employing scare tactics....

It seems that the world community, largely controlled by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (a.k.a. the Fourth Reich), has it ass backwards. Israel is the only legitimate country in the whole of the region.

The 56 Islamic countries and the terror statelet "Palestine" are illegitimate -- their brutality, the sharia, the misogyny, the constant war with infidels and kuffar, the amputations, the inequality for women and dhimmis, the random violence, the islamic supremacism ............... this is illegitimate under international law and our the unalienable rights endowed by our creator.

Writing in Haaretz, Reut Institute Founder and President Gidi Grinstein describes an "unholy alliance" aiming to turn Israel into a pariah state and recommends a comprehensive policy approach to address the challenge. Gidi Grinstein, Haaretz, 01/15/10

A year after Operation Cast Lead, it is increasingly clear: Together with the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the Gaza campaign exposed a dire need for Israel to reform its security and foreign policy doctrine.

Many Israelis are frustrated. Over a three-year period, despite overwhelming military, technological and economic superiority, we failed to achieve decisive successes in confrontations with both Hezbollah and Hamas. In 2006, Israel was dragged through a 33-day exchange, with a cost of 133 dead and a trauma to Israeli society that will take years to heal. And in last year's Gaza operation, our superior military power was offset by an offensive on Israel's legitimacy that led to a significant setback in our international standing, and will constrain future Israeli military planning and operations as effectively as any Arab army could. This is a scorecard Israel can't afford to accept.

Israel's wars are won, or lost, as much on the drawing boards of strategists and planners as on the battlefield. In its first 20 years of existence, Israel had remarkable military successes, but, notwithstanding the bravery of our soldiers, they were primarily the outcome of an intellectual victory in the war of ideas and concepts. David Ben-Gurion's 1947 "seminar," by which he prepared himself for leading the nascent state in an existential military confrontation, generated a set of principles for Israeli national security many of which are relevant today. By 1967, it was secure in its borders.

In the more than four decades since then, Israel's physical existence has been an unchallenged reality, even if at times its citizens have been subjected to terrorism and violence. Arab intentions to destroy Israel were repeatedly frustrated, to a point where any such effort was effectively abandoned, and Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel. Even though Iran may grow into an existential threat, Israel's successes to date have been truly phenomenal.

I could not participate in a One Jerusalem bloggers interview with Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, this afternoon. But Glick was good enough to grant bloggers an opportunity to discuss her new book “Shackled Warrior”. “Shackled Warriors” is an edited compilation of her brilliant Jerusalem Post columns. From One Jerusalem.org:

Caroline raises important points about the future of Israel, the centrality of Jerusalem, Barak Obama's anti-Israel advisers, Israel's penchant for self-destruction, and what American supporters of Israel can do.

Glick was trenchant and quite clear in her views. In response to questions from bloggers, Glick addressed topics like the corruption of Israel’s political system, defeatism of its elites, the yearning patriotism of its citizens, the tethering of Israeli policy to our State Department and implicitly, Saudis interests, the ‘crash of the peace process’, the craziness of the Gaza ‘hudna’ with Hamas, and the pathological abandonment for one half million Israeli citizens in the South and Western Negev.

Glick also gave views on why the Sunni Arabs will not combat the “rising Shia crescent” in the Middle east given the coup d’etat in Lebanon by Hezbollah. Why Russia and China are basically spoilers and why the US presence in Iraq is important in the ‘long war’ against Islamist Jihad in the region. She also opines on the Obama campaign insistence on dividing Jerusalem, ceding Samaria and Judea as abandoning not only Israel’s national and existential interests but also western values given its centrality in our Judeo Christian beliefs. She consider the three fifths of American Jews who would vote for Obama given his allies and objectives as delusional. But in the end she has hope for Israel and America given our vibrancy and dynamism and commitment to core values of individuals, personal responsibility and freedom. This was mind blowing stuff from a valued Jewish and Israeli public intellectual.

According to Glick Israel desperately needs a political system and leaders who are accountable to their citizens and not to the corrupting proportional form of voting for party lists. In her opinion it discourages political and moral courage. That in her view could only come with direct election of Knesset members. She backs Bibi because of a possible shift to individual direct elections in the Knesset and the continued benefits of his economic reforms via privatization of ’sclerotic’ quasi government enterprises and tax incentives for investments. She noted that the US adopted a similar proportional party list system in Iraq, that produced the same system of cronyism.

Glick noted the fifth police investigation of another corruption charge against PM Olmert and a proposed law co-sponsored by Yossi Beilin and a Communist MK to ‘out’ the PM. All that would do in her opinion would be to retain the Kadima regime.

Given Barak’s meeting with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Suleiman in Jerusalem yesterday all that would do is to engage in a crazy “hudna” or cease fire in Gaza. Hamas, Iran’s Proxy, she noted would have control over the Egyptian border control points to infiltrate ever more and larger weapons. It would in her view amount to a ‘temporary lull’ in the murder of Israeli citizens, especially in the South and the Western Negev. It is ‘pathological’ she said to continue exposing one half million Israeli citizens to daily murderous rocket threats, while giving lip service as Barak has to ‘fortifying’ their towns.[...]

Iran has spun their doctrine of hate so that it resonates with the nearly century old Arab hatred for the Jewish presence in the MIddle East.Iran according to her, has simply played on the sympathy by focusing on Israel as the enemy. Iran has not only neutralize the Sunnis, but it now controls Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain, which large Shia populations.

Regarding the regional geopolitical interests of China and Russia, Glick opined that they ‘cherished’ their roles as spoilers and do not consider themselves as front line JIhadist states. Both Countries have essentially neutered economic sanctions against a Nuclear Iran, and supplied them with both nuclear technology and military gear.

She noted that one of the chapters in her new book dealt with her experience as an embedded journalist with the 3rd Infantry Division in the assaults on Baghdad during the war in Iraq. That war was, she believes, was transformed by the ’surge’ strategy of U.S. Army General Petreaus because it was a conscious decision to win. But it also reflected a strategic judgment call, that Glick attributed to AEI scholar Michael Ledeen, that Iraq was not a local war, but a regional one. A war in which Iran with Syrian assistance and “pan Arabist Islamist foot soldiers from Libya and Saudi Arabia” used to foment “chaos” in the region using Iranian supplied equipment and IRGC Al quds force leaders.

Glick noted that overwhelming Israel’s are patriotic over 87% in one survey she cited. In contrast, there is, according to Glick, a huge gulf with the ruling Israeli elites, who as she noted, neither have children serving in the IDF, let along living there. That includes the PM and DPM’s progeny. They live in the fleshpots of Eurabia.

She makes it very plain what she expects when it comes to Obama’s candidacy and American Jews. They shouldn’t vote for him because he is “backed by anti-Semites” and willing to talk with them, Ahmadinejad, for starters.She considers it a ’shander’ that 60% of American Jews polled would vote for Obama. Ironically if he did get elected this fall, the best thing that would happen according to Glick would be that Israel could no longer take ‘orders’ from our State Department.

A question was posed about what American Jews should do given this background. She said that American Jews have to educate their youth about their Jewish identity and connection to Israel. She noted the work by my friend Charles Jacobs of the David project in training youths for Israel advocacy at both the College and high school level

A MYSTERIOUS Israeli military strike on a suspected nuclear site in Syria
last month was opposed by Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state,
because she feared it would destabilise the region, according to a report this
weekend.

Rice persuaded the Israelis to delay their operation, but not to call it off,
after US officials were presented with “jaw-dropping” evidence of Syrian nuclear
activity, the report said.

The Sunday Times revealed two weeks ago that Israeli commandos had seized
samples of nuclear material, said to be of North Korean origin, during a daring
raid on a Syrian military facility to prove to the Americans that an air attack
was essential.

According to ABC News, Rice led the opposition inside the Bush administration
to the Israeli strike, persuading them to shelve initial plans to hit the Syrian
facility in the week of July 14.

The nuclear samples seized by ground commandos remain unidentified, but
defence and intelligence sources in Washington believe they may have been
connected to uranium enrichment.

Ilan Berman, a Middle East expert at the American Foreign Policy Council,
said: “The consensus is that Israel struck a nuclear facility and the
probability is that it was linked to enriching uranium.”

Condi has nothing on Iran as they race to build a nuclear arsenal. No plan. Gotz. She's got nothing on the NORKS as they race to nuclear arm Syria and Iran and who the hell knows who else. She's got nothing ............so her leagcy will be the funding and arming of Islamic jihad under the auspices of a bloody, deadly, "peace" process. This headbanging has gone on long enough. How many Jewish kids, rabbis, believers have to die before the deadly reality of not backing Israel but backing our mortal enemies sets in?

The Jews are not the problem. Nuclear armed Islamic regimes are the most frightening of all possible futures.

Deconstructing the utter mess we are in begins we de-nuclearizing the North Koreans. Bolton has a plan.... is anyone listening?

At a minimum, President Bush should not bequeath to
the next president only the burned-out hulk of the Six-Party Talks, and
countless failed and violated North Korean commitments.

David Gothard

Since they were conceived in spring 2003, the
Six-Party Talks have stumbled around inconclusively. And for the last
13 months, Pyongyang has ignored, stalled, renegotiated and violated
the Feb. 13, 2007 agreement.

Throughout all this "negotiation," which has mostly
consisted of our government negotiating with itself,North Korea has
benefited enormously. It's been spared the truly punishing sanctions
that concerted international effort might have produced. In large part
because of the appeasement policies of the two previous South Korean
governments, Pyongyang has not felt the full impact of the
Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on its outward proliferation
efforts. The U.S. has muzzled its criticism of North Korea's atrocious
oppression of its own citizens. And, perhaps most humiliatingly of all,
the U.S., in a vain effort at chasing the mirage, gave up its most
effective pressure point -- the financial squeeze -- allowing Pyongyang
renewed access to international markets through institutions like Banco
Delta Asia.

In fact, the protracted Six-Party Talks have provided
Kim Jong-il with the most precious resource of all: the time to
enhance, conceal and even disperse his nuclear weapons programs. Time
is nearly always on the side of the would-be proliferator, and so it
has proven here. In exchange for five years of grace to North Korea,
the U.S. has received precious little in return.

Pyongyang is now stonewalling yet again on its promise
to disclose fully the details of its nuclear programs, including its
uranium enrichment efforts and its outward proliferation. The
successful Israeli military strike against a Syrian-North Korean
facility on the Euphrates River last September highlighted the gravity
of the regime's unwillingness to do anything serious that might
restrict its nuclear option.

Nuclear arming of Islamic regimes. The worst of all possible scenarios.

President Bush should spend the next 10 months
rectifying the Six-Party concessions and put North Korea back under
international pressure -- efforts that would be welcomed by Japan, and
South Korea's new, far more realistic President Lee Myung-bak. Here are
the steps to take:

- Declare North Korea's repeated refusal to honor
its commitments, especially but not exclusively concerning full
disclosure of its nuclear programs, unacceptable. This is the
easiest step, and the most obvious. It can happen immediately. Accept
no further partial "compliance," as the State Department continuously
tries to do. Make public what we know about the North's Syria project,
and its uranium enrichment and missile programs, so our 2008
presidential candidates can have a fully-informed debate.

- Suspend the Six-Party Talks, and reconvene talks without North Korea.
Although the talks could be jettisoned altogether, continuing them
without the North allows Japan, South Korea and the U.S. to begin
applying real pressure to China, the one nation with the capacity to
bring Pyongyang's nuclear program to a halt. China has feared to apply
such pressure, worried that it could collapse Kim Jong-il's regime
altogether -- an accurate assessment of the regime's limited staying
power. Nonetheless, the effect of Chinese reticence has been to
preserve Kim and his nuclear program. It is vital that China know this
policy is no longer viable.

- Strengthen international pressure on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
Ramp up PSI cooperation with South Korea. Remind Russia of its own
voluntarily-assumed obligations as a PSI core member. Remind China as
well to comply with the sanctions imposed on North Korea by U.N.
Security Council Resolutions 1695 and 1718 (which followed the North's
2006 ballistic missile and nuclear tests), and honor its other
counterproliferation obligations. Tell them we will be watching with
particular care, and that Chinese failure to increase pressure on North
Korea will have implications in Sino-American bilateral relations. We
can make this point privately to China rather that trumpet it publicly,
but it should be made without ambiguity.

- Squeeze North Korea economically.Return the
regime to limbo outside the international financial system, and step up
action against its other illicit activities, such as trafficking in
illicit narcotics and counterfeiting U.S. money. These and other
"defensive measures" are nothing more than what any self-respecting
nation does to protect itself, and the U.S. should never have eased up
on them. Even now they can have a measurable impact on Kim Jong-il's
weak and unsteady regime.

- Prepare contingency plans for humanitarian relief in the event of increased North Korean refugee flows or a regime collapse.
Both China and South Korea have legitimate concerns about the burdens
they would face if the North collapsed, or if increased internal
economic deprivation spread instability. America and Japan should make
it plain that they will fully shoulder their share of providing
humanitarian supplies and assistance if either happened. Moreover,
President Lee should increase pressure on Pyongyang -- by reiterating
that South Korea will fully comply with its own constitution and grant
full citizenship to any refugees from the North, however they make
their way to the South.

Doubtless there are other steps. President Bush will
not likely be able to solve the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear
weapons program. Nonetheless, he still has time to implement policies
that will allow him to leave office with the nation back on offense --
thereby affording his successor the chance to vindicate a return to the
original Bush administration national security strategy.

OT but related: Anybody know if McCain is talking to Bolton? I mean really.

There are sane voices in Israel. Frankly Israeli Arabs must be expelled ....... they are the enemy within. It's one thing to live by example (no Jews can live in most Arab countries) it's another thing to die for it. Annihilation vs PC?

IsraelNN.com) Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, considered a top Torah sage of the
generation in the hareidi-religious community, issued a Jewish legal decision
banning the employment of Arab workers by Jews
according to the Yom Chadash
daily.

The rabbi issued the decision at a meeting with several administrators of
yeshivas (seminaries) in B’nei Brak. The administrators each employ an older
Arab man who they do not suspect of any involvement in terrorism. The
administrators decided, nonetheless to seek halachic (Jewish legal) guidance
following reports that the terrorist who carried out the massacre at Jerusalem’s
Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva had been hired as a driver on occasion.

“According to Jewish law, it is completely forbidden to hire Arabs,
especially in yeshivas,” Rabbi Kanievsky said. “There is a concern of
endangering lives.”

Over 25 Qassam rockets were fired at the western Negev Thursday, following Wednesday's salvo in the area. Seven mortar shells were also fired landing near the border fence. A seminary student suffered shock.

The Islamic Jihad's military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, claimed responsibility for the Qassam fire.

HAS ISRAEL LOST ITS WILL TO LIVE?Read it. Wriiten by a shrink (shrinkwrapped), it is the most discouraging, but logical explanation to Israel's tepid response to the overwhelming genocidal, barbaric siege on the tiny Jewish nation.

This March 20th, the eve of Purim, help us make
history in solidarity with Israel. Show up no matter where you are. All you need
to do is go to http://www.together4israel.org.

Seven solidarity
rallies … on four continents … live on the web … one million people coming
TOGETHER.

Join us for this historic occasion. Jews
from all over the world will come TOGETHER for the
largest ever online rally. Show you support for our brothers and sisters living
under the constant threat of terror.

Alan Dershowitz, the renowned American international lawyer
and author of, “The Case for Israel,” and Irwin Cotler, the
former Canadian Minister of Justice, will kick off the event broadcasting live
from Sderot, Israel at 11 p.m. local time, 5 p.m. EST.

From Sderot we will jump to live webcasts of rallies in Jerusalem, South
Africa, London, New York, Los Angeles and Australia. Be there in person or
online. Everyone will be counted.

Invited speakers include South Africa’s former President, Nelson
Mandela; Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger;
David Trimble, former First Minister of Ireland; the Chief
Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Sir Jonathan Sacks; and Marvin
Hier, Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Don’t miss this historic opportunity to come
TOGETHER for Israel. On Purim night, March 20th, 11
p.m. Israel time, log on to http://www.together4israel.org and be counted. Give
courage and strength to our brothers and sisters who live under fire.

They are arming to the teeth, smugglimg weapons through Egyptian/Gazan tunnels, Iran is training the barbarinas ........ and Israel will agree to this hudna? How many Jews must die? When can we go to plan B? The "peace"process is a lie and will bring the annihilation of Israel. PLAN B!

In Islam (the Koran) a hudna is a truce, Arab Style
."What is being touted as a 'cease-fire' is something called a 'hudna.' A hudna [also known as a hudibiyya or khudaibiya] is a tactical cease-fire that allows the Arabs to rebuild their terrorist infrastructure in order to be more effective when the "cease-fire" is called off." (more here.)

3/12/2008 11:03:06 AM Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of
the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, has called for a truce with Israel on a set of
conditions.

Speaking at Gaza's Islamic University on Wednesday, Haniyeh
demanded an end to Israeli military activity in the Gaza Strip, a lifting of
Israeli economic sanctions and the opening of Gaza's borders as conditions for a
break in the bloody fighting that has killed dozens of people
recently.

"We are talking about a mutual comprehensive calm, which means
that the enemy must fulfill its obligations," the AP quoted Haniyeh as saying.
He called on the Israelis to stop the assassinations and invasions so that a
ceasefire can be implemented.

"Egypt is trying on this issue. We, as
Palestinians, are waiting for the Israeli answers," Haniyeh said. "The ball is
in Israel's court," he added.Abbas says deal on truce reached

"Palestinian"
president tells reporters in Amman that Israel has agreed not to target Hamas
leaders, ease restrictions on Gaza's residents in exchange for halt in Qassam
fire. Hamas' prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, says lull in Gaza reached
as a result of 'the failure of the Israeli operation in the Strip.' Palestinian
statements contradict remarks made by Olmert, Barak

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed Monday that an
agreement on a truce between Israel and Hamas had been reached, the al-Arabiyah network reported.
Abbas made the comment during a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman.

Who will stand against the jihad? It won't be America who has shrugged her freedom loving shoulders and abdicated her glorious throne of freedom lover, fighter and bastion of the global hopes of billions. And Israel, her willing pawn, slinks away ......

Eight young men, unarmed and in the relative security of their Jerusalem yeshiva, are gunned down in cold blood. In Gaza, thousands take to the streets to celebrate. Their government encourages them to do so.

How toxic is a society when the governing party suggests celebrating a massacre of teenaged boys?

The brutality of Thursday's massacre at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva exposes some ugly truths about the blood lust that has been fostered by leaders in Palestinian society and the unwillingness of most American Muslim political organizations and the mainstream media to confront it.

When the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) is accused of raising money for Hamas terrorism, the defendants and their allies say they merely sought to relieve Palestinian suffering. But the silence from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and others shows their unwillingness to condemn the terrorist act and its glorification.

Israel's national anthem,
Hatikvah, ("The Hope"), was written in 1886 by Naphtali Herz Imber, an English
poet, originally from Bohemia. In 1897, at the first Zionist Congress, Hatikvah
was adopted as the anthem of Zionism. And at that time, The Hope of the
delegates to the Zionist Congress was for a return to Zion, and the rebirth of
the Jewish state.

[...]

Twenty two years on from the
publication of The Siege, and 60 years on from the founding of the
modern state of Israel, it is worth asking if anything has really changed. Is
Israel's hope for a future in its own homeland as much at risk today as when the
anthem was adopted by the new state in 1948? Can Israel hope for a better
future, for peace and normalcy, to be a state like any other? Or is that hope
naïve? More specifically, is Israel's and the Jewish people's hope for Israel to
remain a free nation in its own land, at odds with the reality of the continuing
Siege (today -- of 300 million Arabs in 20 nations aligned against just 5
million Israeli Jews) as well as the new existential dangers to the
state?

I believe that the survival of
Israel should matter a lot to American Jews. Just prior to the start of World
War 2, the world's Jewish population stood at over 17 million, close to 1% of
the world's total population. Of that number, over half, more than 9 million,
lived in Europe, about a third in America, and but 3%, roughly half a million,
in Palestine. Today, after 6 million Jews perished in less than six years in the
Holocaust, we have never come close to restoring our numbers. The best current
estimate of the world's Jewish population is a bit over 13 million, with roughly
80% of the total split between Israel and the US, about 40%, or five million
plus, in each country.

While Jewish numbers worldwide
are down by almost 25% in 65 years, the world's population has more than
tripled. We are now but 1 of every 500 people on the earth, a group smaller than
the Dutch. In Europe, barely a million Jews still reside, fewer than 10% of the
world's total Jewish population, and barely a tenth of their former level in
Europe. As Diaspora Jewry suffers the twin blows of a high intermarriage rate
and a low birthrate, the Jewish numbers in virtually every country outside of
Israel continue to decline. The only exceptions recently have been Canada, where
Jews have a much lower intermarriage rate and a higher birth rate than in the
US, and Germany, which accepted some older Jews from Russia as refugees. In this
country, despite immigration of over half a million Jews from Russia, Israel,
and other countries in the last 30 years, the Jewish population has declined by
over 10% from a peak of 6 million in 1950 to 5.3 million, according to one
population survey, or is now just over 6 million, according to another
survey.

Bitter cold outside the Israeli Consulate to stage a memorial demonstration for the murder of Jewish children in Jerusalem by an Arab terrorist. It is disturbing to me that Jewish organizations did not stage a massive memorial demonstration to express absolute outrage at the cold blooded murder of Jewish children. Where were the Jews today? Where? If this is not the defining moment, if this is not the line in the sand, then we have lost our souls, our humanity, our Jewishness.

Israel supporters worldwide must organize massive rallies and public prayer vigils in memory of those killed in the Thursday attack on a yeshiva in Jerusalem, Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski wrote in a letter to Jewish leaders this week.

Alaa Abu Dhein, a resident of East Jerusalem (the area
which Ehud Olmert is planning to give to the
Palestinians), murdered eight students (seven of whom
were teenagers) of
Merkaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem
Thursday. The following line sums up most of what is
needed to understand the situation:

...Abu Dhein was arrested by defense forces four
months ago and then released two months later.

Here is the whole article. If this doesn't shut down the Jewicidal complicity in the impending second holocaust then we are utterly doomed.

"An IDF officer said no operation is too small to escape legalistic
micromanagement: 'It's really unbelievable. These guys are monitoring
live video feeds from the field and giving the thumbs up or thumbs down
to ongoing ops,' he said."

The Horrible Tragedy at Mercaz Harav on Thursday almost happened four days
earlier as two Palestinians were trying to get in to another Yeshiva in
Jerusalem- Porath Yosef, they were stopped from entering by the Yeshiva's
guards. News of the foiled attack could have alerted Mercaz Harav to the
possibility of the terrorists targeting Yeshivas but unfortunately the word
didn't get out until AFTER Thursday's attack.

""God picks the most beautiful flowers for his garden," said the mother of 16-year-old Avraham David Mozes.

Yohai Lifshitz, 18, of Jerusalem

Yehonatan Yitzhak Alder, 16, of Shilo

Yehonadav Haim Hirshfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar

Neria Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem

Roy Rot, 18, of Elkana

Segev Peniel Avihail, 15, of Neveh Daniel

Avraham David Mozes, 16, of Efrat

Doron Mahareta, 26, of Ashdod

Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav is the spiritual center of Religious Zionism.

A reader ...............

Dear Pamela,

I am shocked, and so angry.

Merkaz was the Yeshiva where I came to study many years ago, as a foreign student, an eager youngster on a spiritual quest, thirsty for knowledge of my people and heritage. I came to know the yeshivah's character and commitment, its cholent and charm, as well as its study halls and hallways now drenched in blood.

I had the privilege of my studies there taking place in 1967, during the lead-up to the Six Day war. The campus became a ghost town as virtually all the Israelis, comprising 95% of the student body, went to their army units, leaving only the dozen or so foreign lads (including yours truly) who all volunteered as a team and worked as the 'orderlies' at the nearby old Shaare Zedek hospital, where many of the wounded were later brought as the fighting developed. I'll never forget the experience of those weeks, nor the inspiring ambience of that particular yeshivah environment.

I'm telling you, the lads of Merkaz, even today 40 years later, are among the crème-de-la­-crème of today's Israeli youth and the backbone of its Jewish future. That they were chosen as the target of this attack is perhaps the surest proof of this.

Today I cry and mourn, and seek to refortify my soul, along with the families and friends of those slaughtered and maimed in yesterday’s massacre. As the saying goes, this day will live in infamy for decades to come, but the sleeping giant it has aroused must be harnessed and directed appropriately.

At root, it is the leadership – primarily Israeli, but also American and European -- that is to blame for what has happened. Olmert and his team -- including the self-serving Shas party who have been, and still are, in a position to force a change in governance – have become a cabinet and government of enablers, not the disablers they should be, when it comes to terror. Together, they have allowed things in Israel to worsen day by day, bullet by bullet, rocket by rocket, when every justification, obligation and opportunity for taking decisive action has repeatedly presented itself but been rejected by them. Even a cursory analysis will show that Israeli’s pusillanimity has contributed not only to the increase in terror within Israel but to the palpable increase in anti-semitism elsewhere.

The Condappeasing Bush administration, and the Europeans, must also be called to account for providing funds and for putting their “arms” around the fake Palestinian enterprise, when that encouragement and those funds, arms and training have knowingly been used to launch and support aggression against Israel instead of peace. It is the height of hypocrisy for them now to be tut-tutting their 'regrets,' sending their “condi-olences,” and mouthing their 'condi-emnations'. The only meaningful "condemnation" is a strong “Jewish nation.” Women in Green has it right in saying that the response to eight deaths should be eight new settlements.

The massacre itself is painful enough. But to see Gazans and their brainwashed children actually jumping for joy at this tragedy takes one to a place beyond pain. Just imagine - they are actually celebrating a calamity, inflicted by their cohort, on the cream of Israeli youth and everything it stands for.

It is high time that those who commit such evil be taught an unequivocal lesson, be made to understand and remember for the next 40 years that it does not and will not pay to pursue this path. Regrettably, it is unlikely that the present governments – of Israel, the US or Europe – will have the integrity or the clarity of vision and purpose needed to conceive and convey such a lesson. Instead, they will most likely take quarter-measures, or less. Witness, even before the blood of the fallen had had time to congeal, Israeli and American “spokespersons” were already intoning the mantra that “this must not be allowed to derail the peace process!”

The very opposite should be the approach.

By failing to respond appropriately, by failing to take heed, by failing to reach and implement the obvious conclusions, they will thus communicate -- yet again -- the message that killing Jews is OK. The fallout of that failure will affect not only Israel and Jews everywhere, but will just as surely come home to roost on their own doorsteps too. By then, however, it may be too late to turn their tide.

Photo credit: Avi Ohayon, Government Press Office.

UPDATE: I hear a new hezbo group is taking credit for the mass murder and I am not buying it. It's all the same thing, all the same people, all the same religious dogma. Not buying it some new kid in town. It's the same old sick, depraved pox on humanity.

"Nearly half of them are Palestinians who have received a permit to stay in Israel and an Israeli identity card on the backdrop of their marriage to an Israeli Arab, and terror groups seek to recruit them due to their access to Israeli targets."

It was the beginning of a holiday when a Jewish school in Jerusalem, a rabbinical seminary no less, was attacked by Arab savages. Imagine (although you can't because the Jews would never do such a thing) if a madrassah with young Muslim students were murdered by the Jews. THINK ABOUT IT! Jewish life is cheap? Damn you to hell. Condi, go home!

Two Arab terrorists infiltrated Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva at
around 8:30
Thursday night and murdered eight Jews. At least 40 people
have been wounded; one is in critical condition and a second victim was
wounded moderately.

The attackers opened fire on the
students before one of them was gunned down himself. A second terrorist
apparently escaped and may be hiding in the yeshiva building. Security
forces are deployed in the surrounding neighborhood, with police saying
that all the students have been evacuated.

I can see the savages dancing.

UPDATE: The Muslims are dancing. They are dancng in Gaza. If only I were in charge. They would never dance again.

Naomi Ragen wrote this:

I write you this with a heavy heart. This evening, about 8:30
p.m., an Arab terrorist from East Jerusalem, bearing a blue
Israeli identity card, entered one of Jerusalem's elite
Rabbinical academies, known as Mercaz Harav. He carried a
package into the unguarded building where rooms full of young
boys in their early to late teens sat pouring over the pages of
the Talmud. Some of them had just returned from the kotel. They
were waiting for the festive evening - marking the beginning of
the joyous month of Adar, the month of the holiday of Purim- to
begin.

The terrorist headed for the library. He opened his package.
Inside was a gun and so many rounds of ammunition that security
forces at first thought it was a suicide belt because of its
enormous weight. He saw young, unarmed yeshiva students learning
Torah and he opened fire at point blank range. In a room nearby,
some older students heard the shots. At first they thought it
might be firecrackers to welcome in the month of Adar. And then
they heard the screams. Somehow, about twenty of them were able
to rush out of the library and barricade themselves in another
room. They heard the shots and the screams. They watched the
shadow of the terrorist as he walked to and fro, silencing the
moans of the wounded with further shots. They waited, expecting
to be killed at any moment.

A yeshiva student in the dormitories, hearing the shots, took his
personal weapon and opened fire on the terrorist, wounding him.
From across the street, a former student of the yeshiva, a
paratrooper and an officer, took his weapon and ran across the
street. Because of his familiarity with the yeshiva, he was able
to find the exact angle from which to fire at the rampaging
murderer, shooting him in the head, and putting an end to the
carnage. He did this at great personal risk.

So far, we in Jerusalem are hearing reports that eight boys are
dead, and many more are injured, some of them seriously.
We are hearing reports that the Hamas is giving out candy and
rejoicing in Gaza. Hamas leaders are proud of this "hero."

This is the kind of heroes that Muslims have. The kind that kill
young unarmed students at point blank range. May G-d avenge
their blood.

I heard the ambulance sirens wailing from my window and from the sheer quantity
it was clear that something terrible had just happened. I checked the internet
and saw an initial report relating that one student at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva was
wounded. And I knew that it was a massacre. That’s how it always starts.

The police claim that they had received no intelligence information warning
of an impending attack in the capital. But there were several indications that
one was about to occur. On Saturday night I was walking in a park above the Old
City at dusk. Suddenly a crowd of Arab teenagers appeared and started yelling
Allah Akhbar. My big, barking dog scared them away. They were not serious but
they were the harbinger of what came next.

Two days later mobs of Arabs attacked Jewish motorists in the city and nearly
lynched two municipal inspectors whose car they assaulted with rocks and crow
bars while trying to force them out of their vehicle. The pair escaped by the
skin of their teeth as they swerved out of range and managed to drive away. I
hate to think what would have happened if the Fatah-incited mob had attacked
their tires instead of their windshield

Between Iran, Egypt, Syria, Hamas, Hizbullah, Fatah and the Israeli Arab
leadership, the incitement level this week was so high, that the violence level
crossed a Rubicon. It was only a question of when and where the bullets and
bombs would start exploding not whether or not they would.

So the Palestinian Arabs and their friends have decided to murder Jews
studying Torah in Jerusalem. They decided to go to the heart of the religious
Zionist movement and open fire knowing the sort of passions such an attack will
provoke. Apparently the terrorist was a Jerusalemite. One television channel
reported that he lived in Jabel Mukhaber – a neighborhood abutting Armon
HaNatziv. Not surprising.

The third stage of the Palestinian jihad against Israel has been germinating
for months and now it is taking off. And the role that Israeli Arabs will play
in this round will likely be an expanded one.

I have a theory I have been working on regarding the applicability of the US
counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq to Israel’s war with the Palestinians. More
and more I am reaching the conclusion that the place to launch a serious,
directed hearts and minds operation is not among the Arabs of Gaza, Judea and
Samaria, but among Israeli Arabs. They have to be given an opportunity and a
reason to abandon their jihadist leaders and discredit them. They are the Arab
population most open to such a campaign.

Eight yeshiva students murdered while studying Torah in Jerusalem. And
Olmert, Livni, Condi, Bush and all their friends and supporters want to give
these people Jerusalem. What do they see when they look in the mirror?

Ashkelon resident Moshe Nissimpor decided that the best way to halt rocket
fire from Gaza - in light of what he terms the government's failure to do so -
is some vigilante justice.

Nissimpor developed a homemade 200-millimeter ballistic missile which he
planned to launch from Ashkelon into the Gaza Strip.

"From this day onwards, we will push back to the stone age every place which
dares shoot missiles into Israel's sovereign territory," he said Wednesday. "It
is time the world understood Israelis' lives are not expendable."

"I'm afraid this is the only language the Palestinians understand, and this
is the language in which we'll speak to them. I have many Gazan Palestinian
friends who live as Hamas hostages. Once we bring an end to the rocket fire,
Gaza's residents will also live in peace," he said.

Nissimpor arrived at the Ashkelon Municipality building with the missile
painted black and lettered "to Hamas, from the residents of Ashkelon" in red,
and was planning to launch it.

Ashkelon residents gathered round to cheer him on and protest the
government's conduct, but at the eleventh hour, police stopped him from firing
the missile and seized it.

"I wish there were more 'crazies' like me in Israel," Nissimpor said as the
crowd was dispersed by the police.

Fatah
Organizes Anti-Israel Riots in Eastern Jerusalem - Zvi
YehezkeliPalestinian youth organized by Fatah nearly lynched two Jerusalem
municipal inspectors in eastern Jerusalem on Monday. Why did Fatah push people
to take to the streets? If they didn't demonstrate against Israel, they would
demonstrate against the Palestinian Authority and support Hamas. This raises the
question of how much control Abbas really has. (Channel 10 TV-Hebrew)

Municipal
Inspectors Narrowly Escape Palestinian Mob in Eastern Jerusalem - Etgar
LefkovitsHundreds of Arab teens pelted Israeli cars, police and passersby
with rocks in eastern Jerusalem on Monday as rioting over the violence in Gaza
continued in the Arab sections of Jerusalem. The graphic images of two city
workers who were inside their vehicle when they came under attack topped the TV
newscasts in Israel on Monday night. Minutes later an elite unit of undercover
Jerusalem police, aided by a Border Police anti-terror unit, arrested the
leaders of the attack (Jerusalem Post)